Slicing procedures in layered manufacturing: a review

Layered manufacturing (LM) or rapid prototyping is a process in which a part is produced using layer-by-layer addition of the material. In LM, slicing of the CAD model of a part to be produced is one of the important steps. Slicing of CAD model with a very small slice thickness leads to large build time. At the same time if large slice thickness is chosen, the surface finish is very bad due to staircasing. These two contradicting issues namely reduction in build time and better surface quality have been a major concern in laminated manufacturing. This contradiction has led to the development of number of slicing procedures. The present paper reviews various slicing approaches developed for tessellated as well as actual CAD models.